Ballet Hispanico soared in New Orleans four years ago, and the New York troupe hasn’t rested in the intervening years. Look for fresh repertoire, a new artistic director, 13 young dancers, and a 20-piece Grammy-winning jazz band when the company returns for a Saturday, Dec. 8, concert at the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts.

Amid all those changes, Ballet Hispanico still celebrates its roots, said Eduardo Vilaro, the 48-year old choreographer who replaced founding director Tina Ramirez in 2009.

“I wouldn’t have this job if my Mom hadn’t asked me to get up and dance at home when wonderful music was playing,” Vilaro said. “I grew up in the Latino culture, where there is a song for every dance and a dance for every song.”

The Cuban-born Vilaro is a familiar talent to many New Orleanians. He toured here as a star dancer for Ballet Hispanico in the 1980s. Vilaro also traveled here with Luna Negra, the acclaimed Chicago troupe that he founded and ran for a decade.

“New Orleans audiences know how to get down,” Vilaro said. “They have a deep, genetic understanding of how music and dance make a community, and they respond to the social dance elements in modern choreography. Dancers feed off that kind of audience.”

Admission: Tickets ranging from $20-$80 may be purchased through the New Orleans Ballet Association Box Office at 504.522.0996, online at the NOBA website or through TicketMaster online or at 800.745.3000.

Latin Dance Party: Ballet Hispanico dancers will partner with patrons at a post-concert dance party to benefit NOBA. The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra will perform. Admission includes parking, open bar, and buffet. The party begins at 9:30 p.m. Saturday in the lobby of the Pan American Life Center, 601 Poydras St. Tickets are $60. Contact NOBA at 504.522.0996 to purchase.

Free performances at area schools: NOBA and Ballet Hispanico present two free, bilingual mini performances featuring the Hispanico dancers and select NORDC/NOBA Center For Dance students. The first performance will be at the Bonnabel High School gym, 2801 Bruin Drive, Kenner, on Dec. 5 at 6:30 p.m., and the second will be at Delgado Community College gym, Dec. 6 at 6:30 p.m. Performances are open to the public.

On Saturday, Vilaro’s dancers also will feed off the riffing and solos of the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra. The New York ensemble, led by pianist Arturo O’Farrill, was created in 2002 for Jazz at Lincoln Center.

O’Farrill’s group has partnered with Ballet Hispanico for a decade, and the relationship has affected both dancers and musicians, the pianist said.

“The dancers are happier when we improvise,” O’Farrill said. “There is a very real synergy and extra energy that comes when dancers look beyond the strict counting and specificity of traditional choreography. They have to feel the music and they have to be willing to walk out on the high wire with the musicians.”

“For dancers and choreographers, improvisation has often been a tool in the choreographic process, but I like what happens when it becomes part of the piece that audiences see,” Vilaro said. “Something magical happens --- improvisation frees you from preconceptions.”

Vilaro and his troupe are so confident about this approach, that they even take it off stage. On Saturday, for example, artists from the company will partner with social dancers from the community at a post-concert ball with music supplied by O’Farrill’s band. The party is a benefit for NOBA.

“I have a cadre of artists who are unafraid to take risks,” Vilaro said. “Today’s dancers are so well trained, so creative, that it would be a huge loss to leave them out of the process of creating movement. My job is to coach them, encourage them, and give them choreographic structures that frame and sustain their improvisations. And I want to do that while keeping close to the earthy joy that all of us know from dancing with our loved ones.”